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Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Julie Dargis, the author of "Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa", is a poet and an author of considerable note. Being the unique person that she is, she went off to work in Morocco for the Peace Corps at a time when most women just sought security in marriage. Julie was drawn then to work for humanitarian efforts in such faraway places as Rwanda, Belgrade, the Congo, Southern Sudan and the Paris of Africa, which is Abidjan. She has to learn and accept other languages and cultures, suffer through malaria, a broken toe, and parasite worms and to endure love affairs that didn't end in marriage. But author/poet Julie always came home to Minneapolis where she wrote her deep, exquisite poems that tell of life and death in her overseas assignments. On those jobs that took her to various places around the world, Julie often found herself in danger and bravely survived. She writes of getting attacked as she sat in a car in Southern Sudan or how she helped an assistant like Suleiman whose life was in danger in Rwanda.
"Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa" is Julie Dargis's memoir of her life as an overseas humanitarian worker and it is interspersed with her reflective poems on the many people and places she encountered. The author writes of her deep attachment to those people and places and carries them in her heart through her poetry that sums up her experiences. Julie Dargas admits that she often pushed herself too hard. On page 237, her author's note says: "I paid for my experiences with splintered, disjointed relationships. But I did not pay for my experiences in sorrow." For the thoughtful reader, "Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa" is one great, unforgettable read.
